Network devices today can have many functions and parameters that can be managed through a textual user interface (e.g., a command line interface), which because of its complexity and syntax used increases the difficulty and training required to manage these devices.
The present invention relates to apparatus and method for accessing command line interface information from a device.
Devices such as routers, hub, switches or other devices in a network include information relating to that device, that is, details of its type, and the configuration and status of various parts of the device, which can be accessed by a network supervisor via the command line interface. Whilst information relating to how to set up a device, for example, how to configure the device, may be provided in the form of a booklet, it is often more convenient to access this information directly from the device itself. However in view of the large amount of information, it is difficult to access this information without being familiar with the layout of the information on a particular device and different manufacturers of the device tend to arrange the information in different ways so it is difficult to be fully skilled at accessing the relevant information.
It would also be useful for a network supervisor to be able to easily establish the existing values to which the various parameters of the device have been set and even more useful to be able to easily determine the reason for each parameter value.
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for storing some or all of such information and for providing easy access to the information.